Computer networking environments such as Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) permit many users, often at remote locations, to share communication, data, and resources. A storage area network (SAN) may be used to provide centralized data sharing, data backup, and storage management in these networked computer environments. The networks typically employ network switches to provide the routing functions necessary for the transmission of data between the various devices connected to the network. It is important that the network switch contain enough routing components to fully support the devices to which the network switch is connected. If the network switch does not contain a sufficient number of routing components, then the network switch may act a bottleneck and limit the effective bandwidth of the network. Therefore, as new devices are added to the computer network, a network administrator will generally ensure that the network switches are large enough to support the added devices.
Network switches generally posses a fixed internal topology, In other words, how the internal components interconnect is predetermined and cannot be changed. Therefore, the network switch is designed with a predetermined and fixed bandwidth. As a result, if a network switch is no longer sufficient to support the number of network devices to which it is attached, then the network switch must be replaced with a larger network switch. Generally, the expense of a switch will increase as more routing components are added. Thus, a switch that incorporates six routing components will be more expensive than a switch that incorporates four routing components. As a result, the process of upgrading a network is expensive. In addition, the upgrading a network is wasteful because the replaced network switches typically cannot be incorporated into the network.